News Release

November 20, 2012Negotiation Teams Excel in Fall Competitions

The Negotiation Honors Program is having a lot of success at its fall competitions, earning Second Place at the National Sports Law Negotiation Competition in October and First Place at the ABA Regional Negotiation Competition in November.

At the National Sports Law Negotiation Competition held at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Southwestern's team of Daniel Dib and Cortni Joyner took Second Place. Forty teams from ABA schools across the country participated in the competition, including Harvard, UC Berkeley, Hastings, and Fordham. The Sports Law Competition is the biggest national competition of the year and is extremely tough because it cuts from 40 teams to just four teams that make the finals.

This year, the teams negotiated Landon Donovan's contract and Wolfpack's entrance into the PAC16. Southwestern had two outstanding teams participate: in addition to Dib and Joyner, the team of Daniel Emmer and Jessica Manavi also represented Southwestern well.

Associate Dean Nyree Gray and Professor Cristina Knolton, Co-Directors of Southwestern's Negotiation Honors Program, coached the teams. "Daniel and Cortni were outstanding in the final round and were able to quickly think on their feet and adjust to anything the opposing counsel threw at them," Dean Gray said. "The received very complimentary comments from the judges and truly shined among 40 schools from across the country."

Yasha Rastegari, Jonathan Evans, Imran Rahma and Jennifer Allen

The second competition was the ABA Regional Negotiation Competition in San Francisco. The topic this year was small business management. There were 24 schools represented, including teams from UC Berkeley, Thomas Jefferson, and Pepperdine. Southwestern sent two teams: Jennifer Allen and Yasha Rastegari, and Jonathan Evans and Imran Rahman. Evans and Rahman advanced to the final round, where they won First Place by defeating California Western, the reigning regional champion team. In February, Evans and Rahman will compete in the National ABA Negotiation Competition in Dallas, Texas.

In addition to Professor Knolton and Dean Gray, Professor Vivian Montz also helped coach the ABA teams. "Overall I think both teams have done so well because of the immense amount of practice and hard work they put into preparing for the competition," Professor Knolton said. "Each team practices for two hours daily for the weeks leading up to the competition. The preparation is really a group effort. Both teams prepared by "sparring" against other members of the Negotiation Program and all teams implemented creative ideas shared by the other members of the team. After winning first place, the first thing Jonathan and Imran did was thank Jenn and Yasha for all of their help in preparing for the competition. It was a group effort and everyone contributed to the win."